Hair implants have become increasingly popular for providing an artificial hair covering over bald areas of a human scalp. However, the success of prior artificial hair implants has been limited mainly due to the unnatural cosmetic appearance of the implanted hairs and the loss of implanted hairs during combing and brushing resulting from inadequate anchoring. Various methods have been heretofore proposed for anchoring the implanted hairs into the scalp such as by forming a plurality of knots at the end of a strand of hair as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,230. However, the knotting of a single strand of hair is a tedious and time consuming operation and knotting strictly at the end of a single hair often results in the knot slipping off the end of the hair when tugged excessively during brushing and combing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,969 discloses a method for implanting a natural or synthetic hair utilizing a disk-shaped member having a number of perforations through which the ends of the artificial strands are inserted and then knotted. U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,592 discloses another method for implanting and anchoring an artificial hair in human skin tissue which utilizes a one-piece artificial hair strand having an enlarged root portion made as one piece with the trunk portion of the strand which extends above the stem surface. A problem encountered during the implant process with the prior apparatus is that the hair strand is normally carried within the bore of the needle with the anchor portion carried either within the bore or exterior of the needle. The problem occurs in that skin tissue is often lodged around the open end of the needle during insertion into the skin tissue causing the hair to bind in the opening and pull out when the needle is withdrawn from the scalp instead of sliding relative to the needle. While U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,969 utilizes a plurality of strands anchored by a single anchor member, the strands are knotted at the ends which increases the tendency of the knots to slip off of the end of the hair when tugged upon sufficiently during brushing.
Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for implanting a natural or artificial hair fiber wherein the implanted hair is anchored securedly and has a natural appearance.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for implanting a plurality of hair strands at a time.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide a method for artificially implanting a hair strand wherein the strand is anchored by a knotting arrangement which cannot slip off of hair strands during tugging.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for artificially implanting a strand of hair wherein the hair strand is carried about the exterior of the implant needle avoiding binding of the hair strand inside the needle due to lodging of skin tissue during needle insertion.